Tests Made with Living Heart in Air-Tight Chamber (May, 1938)

Tests Made with Living Heart in Air-Tight Chamber
BY KEEPING the heart and lungs of a dog alive in an air-tight chamber, Dr. Maurice Visscher of the University of Minnesota recently demonstrated a startling new way to perform physiological experiments. Oxygen tubes kept the organs functioning normally while he injected drugs directly into the blood stream of the heart to study their effect. Meanwhile, delicate thermostats maintained a constant temperature within the outer water-filled tank, preventing variations that would affect the experiment or cause the “death” of the transplanted organs.